I’ve had a very interesting and unique path into owning my own online business, software, and companies.
Like most kids, I had big dreams growing up. For me however, I knew around the age of 10, exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. Actually, it was less of a decision and more of just a burning desire to fly military jets.
I was lucky enough that my parents supported me by letting me take flying lessons as a teenager when I was in High School. By the time I started college, I had earned my private pilot’s license, and a scholarship to study Aeronautical Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, where I enrolled in the Reserve Officer Training Corps. At the end of my freshman year, I took a risk and changed my major to Aeronautical Science, which meant giving up my scholarship. I took the risk to ensure that I had the highest chance to get a pilot slot, even if it meant taking on student loan debt.
The risk paid off. Five years later, with a college degree and two years of intensive pilot training under my belt, I was living my dream as a mission qualified F-16 pilot for the U.S. Air Force. Over the next five years, I served as wing man, flight lead, mission commander and instructor, ultimately logging nearly 1,000 hours of flight time.
I truly enjoyed my career and was on my third flying assignment in 2007 when everything changed. A lower back injury ended my flying career just while I was at the top of my game. I had surgery, months of rehab, and almost a second surgery trying to get back into the jet. Unfortunately that never happened.I had no idea what I was going to do next. After spending a year in medical limbo — meaning I couldn’t fly but also couldn’t work for anyone else — I was medically retired from the Air Force.
But that in-between year turned out to be an opportunity, because I turned to my laptop and tried to figure out how I could make money online.
I knew I didn’t want a regular 9-to-5 job. I also knew I wanted to control my own income — that is, I wanted to take calculated risks and receive calculated rewards, with no ceiling on how much revenue I could earn.
Even though I had no business experience, I started dabbling in online and affiliate marketing.
Within a year or two my goal had shifted from making money online to starting a business that could help others. Just like that, I changed my all-in concept from flying planes to building a business.
Since 2008 I’ve built multiple training and software products that have helped tens of thousands of marketers and small businesses across the world. Looking back on my experiences, I can see that my Air Force experience prepared me in specific ways to become an entrepreneur.
I have a strong commitment to my customers, the quality of training and platforms we release, and am always striving to be better. We set objectives and goals and debrief on each product, promotion, feature releases, etc. This mindset has helped many projects succeed over the past decade and as a subscriber, customer, or follower, I know you will see and feel the difference when you work with me.
In 2014, I Co-Founded Reputation Loop, an online reputation management and marketing platform. In January 2019, we sold Reputation Loop to ASG. Since then I’ve had 3 smaller exits and focus the majority of my time with Reviewly.ai helping small business owners.
More recently my focus has been on my new AI SaaS platform
Reviewly.ai. An AI assisted Google Review Generation and Response platform helping SMBs and White Label partners. I am also the inventor of the patent pending software
Response Engine that helps bridge the gap between direct mail and digital marketing.